Trade Show Booth Checklist

All the elements to consider when creating engaging & exciting marketing events.

By Olivia Sundstrom

Marketing activations, pop-up shops, trade shows, and expositions are exciting no matter the industry. It’s a time where every brand puts it’s best foot forward and taps into creative ideas to create the ideal first impression.

Creating an overall roadmap for the marketing events, exhibitions, and tradeshow’s your brand plans to showcase at over the year might seem daunting at first but breaking every showcase opportunity down into a checklist format will not only put the mind at ease but can significantly boost the overall success at marketing events for your brand.

Here is a breakdown of what every brand’s trade show booth checklist should touch on, and what areas to highlight for your brand in order to have the most consistency and success with marketing events, brand activations, exhibitions, and trade shows.

Make a Statement

Trade show’s and exhibition halls are the center point of any given industry on any given occasion, with hundreds of brands, consumers, investors, and marketers all convening under the same roof to engage in the latest industry news, trends, and products.

Bringing artistry to a trade show or exhibition presence is something often overlooked but booth designers know the power of creating a breathtaking foundation for a brand’s presence at an event.

Making a statement is the whole reason for showing up at an exhibition, whether that statement is aimed at mostly consumers or to other industry players is dependant on the organization. At the start of any checklist, is a general idea of what statement an organization or brand needs to make– What is the overall theme? What is the message attendees need to take away from their experience?

Once the message is decided upon everything else can fall into place to create a custom fit outline and trade show checklist for your brand.

Creating a high impact trade show or exhibition presence is done with a strong foundation, when it comes to a strong foundation many might not think of design work as the main focus of marketing event strategies, however an innovative and interesting booth design can do wonders with pulling in foot traffic, seamlessly breaking up booth activities, and so much more.

Design work is often seen as something extra but the proper design work within any marketing event can provide great value for the overall price.

In need of a few design ideas or inspiration? Check out our break down of some of the best trade show booth ideas and strategies: “Inspiring Trade Show Booth Ideas“.

A Personal Touch

A personal touch is something that extends far past customized coffee mugs and flyers. Creating a memorable and personable interaction is between the audience and brand can be done in limitless ways.

Long gone are the days of the free branded pens and note pads that sit atop trade show and exhibition booth tabletops. Here are the days of the custom branded vending machines.

There are so many innovative takes on freebies and merch for events and one of the most ingenious takes is the social media smart vending machine where guests can exchange a tweet, a follow, or a post for free merch and prizes.

Applications & Augmented Reality

Another incredibly smart freebie to give away is offering a free download of an app. When it comes to applications there are two main factors that determine it’s value to consumers: the information and the functionality.

Providing a free version of a brand’s guide, extra product information, services, or perks via App is a great way for a consumer to engage with a brand far after the exhibition or marketing event. With technology constantly evolving and augmented reality coming into the spotlight within the last few years, many brands are creating their own augmented reality style apps for consumers.

The seamless application of augmented reality and convenience of the technology in something as universal as a smartphone has sparked an AR boom much like the VR boom where brands and industry leaders everywhere are adopting the technology.

In addition to retail giants adopting augmented reality as a medium for new marketing and advertising content, smaller brands like Angry Orchard Cider have taken a creative approach to augmented reality marketing by offering an augmented tasting and pairing menu with their variety pack product available in stores.

Taking Angry Orchard’s augmented reality creation and using it as a model can produce endless customized augmented reality experiences for brands.

Providing an experience where consumers can download a customized application from a brand, augmented reality or otherwise, is a great take on the classic exhibition or marketing event freebie.

Another way augmented reality can play a part in a brand’s tradeshow or exhibition booth presentation is working in augmented reality into the statement or design elements of the presentation and use augmented reality in a way to attract and engage with attendees.

Augmented reality can enhance any art installation experience or even educational and informative presentations with the proper presentation. An example of using augmented reality as an interactive installation is BBC Earth’s Olso bus stop installation.

Branded Grab Bags

There is nothing wrong from the classic goodie bag of product that comes with promoting a brand or product at a marketing event, but consider that there are now so many ways to get creative with free products at events.

Host a Contest

Host an engaging contest, activity, or create a game where guests can earn tickets to use in a raffle for prizes and get creative with ways to have fun with attendees.

For Your Event

National Event Pros offers a full range of event support and services, and we take great pride in working with our clients to create outstanding event experiences. We will make a difference in how you celebrate!